Evenflo Titan 5 - Safety First! And... Perhaps Only

Author's Rating:

Pros: Price, latch system installation, and SAFETY!

Cons: Difficult adjustment and seat belt installation

The Bottom Line: 
If you don't mind spending 3x as much, I'm sure there's a better seat out there. Otherwise, this is a great price without compromising your child's safety.

Author's Review
When it came to selecting a car seat, the only real considerations my wife and I looked at were the safety rating and the affordability. Looking back after 16 months of hauling my baby boy around, I realize that other aspects of the seat deserve some consideration, too. Luckily, we have been very pleased with our decision.

The Basics
The Evenflo Titan 5 is a convertible car seat, meaning the seat can face either forwards or backwards depending on the age/size of your child. Straps are also accommodating, with 3 different positions for maximum comfort and safety. This seat is not intended to double as a carrier, so it has no snap-in base. Instead, the entire seat is secured to the car with either a seat belt or the latch system. The seat is rated for newborns up through 40lbs.

Installing the seat
The seat belt installation is pretty typical of car seats. There is a gap between the pad and the plastic base through which the belt is passed. Shoulder straps can be used with this, but we usually use our center buckle, which is just the lap strap. Using the seat belt system can be a little difficult, because it takes a lot of muscle to get it strapped down good and tight. Usually, one person has to put their weight in the seat, while the other tugs the belt tight. My wife has actually walked away from this ordeal with bruises on her shins in our attempts to meet the manufacturer's recommendation of maximum side-to-side movement. With a little work, though, we usually manage to get it nice and secure.

The latch system is compatible with many newer cars and is designed for easier installation. Equipped cars have mounting studs that the car seat's latch straps can attach to. My father-in-law's car has this system, and it's much easier to get the car seat installed and secured. Because you're not relying on the seat belt, it is easier to tighten the straps, and all the latches are within easier reach.

There is an arrow on the side of the seat which lets you know if the seat is leaning too far forward and back. When our son was rear-facing, we had to put a towel under the seat to keep it level. Since moving to front-facing, however, we have not needed this. After extended use, we usually have to retighten the seat belts to keep the seat secure. The seat has never been installed with the latch system long enough for it to work itself loose, though, so I can't be sure how it compares.

Installing the baby
Babies are secured using a 5-point harness system. Straps come from over the baby's shoulder, down to a buckle that sits between their legs. Slots in the buckle then guide the straps over the baby's waist, so their entire torso is secured. The straps are connected in the back, so pulling one out of the back of the seat forces the other to draw up into the seat. To loosen the straps, you pull a yellow cord on the front of the seat and simultaneously pull on the straps near the shoulders. To tighten, you pull on the straps through the back and pull the grey strap in the front. Getting the baby in and out and adjusting the straps depends a lot on whether the seat is facing the front or rear.

Rear - When the baby is facing the rear of the vehicle, the front of the car seat is pressed against the back of the seat. The adjusting straps are pretty close to the top, however, so it isn't hard to fish them out of the crack to tighten or loosen shoulder straps. The back of the seat is easily reachable, so tightening and loosening are very easy.

Front - When the baby is facing the front, the back of the car seat is pressed against the back of the seat. Although this does not interfere with loosening the straps (as you pull the shoulder straps from the front), it makes it much harder to tighten, because you can not get behind the seat to pull the shoulder straps. It is possible to just pull the grey strap with enough force to draw the shoulder straps to the appropriate length, but it is pretty hard to do and usually requires moving to the front seat where you can get more leverage.

Besides adjusting the shoulder straps to the correct lenght, there isn't much to it. The buckle is pretty easy, although the straps can sometimes twist in their slots. It's remarkable how hard it can be to untwist them when it was so effortless to mess them up in the first place! There is also a plastic chest buckle, which is supposed to be slid up to the baby's armpits.

General Use and Impressions
I like the seat. When Daniel was first born, we put a towel around his head to keep it from rolling back and forth. Besides that, he has really needed no special accommodation to be comfortable. He'll ride for 45-60 minutes before he starts getting restless and fussy.

I liked the straps more when he was rear-facing and when it wasn't winter. Winter means that we are constantly taking his coat on and off, so the straps often need readjustment. With him being front-facing now, it is really hard to get them tight enough. Usually, my wife stays with our son and I'll go back to the front seat and start pulling. She'll check the tightness and tell me to pull more. This, of course, is repeated until we get it tight enough. A little involved, but the whole process takes less than 30 sec, so I suppose I can't complain too much. One thing I don't like is the plastic clip that is supposed to be even with his armpits. When moved up to this position, it usually bumps his chin and has left marks a couple times. We've also seen a few marks on his neck from where the straps rub, but this is pretty rare and seems to be avoidable with careful placement.

Drawbacks
Because it is not a snap-base system, the seat is not well suited to being taken out and reinstalled really often. If you're wanting a seat that you can take inside restaurants, you'll probably need something else. We ended up just getting an extra carrier for taking him inside places, so we could keep the safety of a non-snap base and still have something to keep him in when we went to stores and restaurants. Also, this seat does not convert into a booster.

Conclusions
We are pleased with the seat and intend to use it again with the next child. Though the strap system is a little awkward and the installation of the seat can be difficult, we feel like our son is safe, which is the most important element. Consumer Reports found this seat to be exceptionally safe, and we have grown accustomed to the various rituals for getting the seat and the baby in and out. In safety and security, the seat gets 5/5. In convenience, it gets a mere 2/5. However, since I tend to focus more on the safety, I'll round up to a respectable 4/5. I'd love for the system to be revised for more convenience, but I think they got a lot of things right with this seat.